Posted
by
samzenpus
on Thursday November 22, 2012 @09:46PM
from the that's-some-mighty-fine-police-work-there-lou dept.

zacharye writes "Copyright enforcement might be getting out of hand in Scandinavia. As anti-piracy groups and copyright owners continue to work with authorities to curtail piracy in the region, police this week raided the home of a 9-year-old suspect and confiscated her "Winnie the Pooh" laptop. TorrentFreak reports that the girl's home was raided after local anti-piracy group CIAPC determined copyrighted files had been downloaded illegally at her residence. Her father, the Internet service account holder, was contacted by CIAPC, which demanded that he pay a 600 euro fine and sign a non-disclosure agreement to settle the matter. When the man did not comply, authorities raided his home and collected evidence, including his 9-year-old daughter's notebook computer."

From reading the story it seems like the father admitted that the daughter tried to download some songs but was unable to because the download failed for some reason so they went out and the CD she wanted. While I don't agree with the way the music industry handles all of this I don't pirate content because I don't want to deal with this crap. But on the same note I buy very very very little music now. I used to buy CDs or when itunes came out albums all the time at least one a month. Now I'm lucky if I buy one song a year.

Seriously, this so-called article doesn't even state which country it happended in.. nor does any of the links in it.

I live in Norway, in this certainly hasn't hit the news here.. and if it did, you can be damn sure there would be hell to pay for somebody. Our authorities are so fucking nice that even after Breivik blew up our government headquarters and shot around 80 kids.. one by one.. we still hadn't scrambled the military or even gotten choppers in the air. I honestly suspect if our police (who don't have guns) tried to take a 9 year old girls laptop they would comply when she kicked them and told them go away:)

This is a civil violation, not a criminal one.... It's extortion to demand money not to turn someone in for a criminal violation, but in civil matters you are free to offer a deal in exchange for not pressing charges.... You can't blame the police for enforcing the law, it's also what they DO.

Sorry, you are not making sense.

Yes, you can offer a deal in civil violation cases, but you certainly do not get to call in police to back you up if the opponent turns down the deal.

Please decide -- either it's a criminal violation (then the police are enforcing the law and 600 euro get-out-of -jail bribe is ridiculous) or it is a civil violation (and in that case what "law" is police enforcing, exactly?). I thought it was criminal, since police raided their house.

Actually that's exactly how it works. You don't call the police directly like you're reporting robbery though. Your lawyers see a judge and file charges and obtain a warrant. THEN the police get involved and go to the defendant and gather evidence. Those extra steps are required, in theory, to make sure that a crime is likely taking place before the police get involved. At some point a judge approved this raid before it happened. The plaintiff presented evidence to support their claim, had their i's dotted and t's crossed, got the warrant, and in came the cops. That's sometimes how civil cases go.

Well as far as the Finnish laws go, the investigating police officer can issue a search warrant for anyone's home if there is "a reasonable suspicion". Whatever this "reasonable suspicion" can be, is up to anyone's guess. No need for a judge just yet. This procedure shows just how rotten a police state this country has become.

I think you need to know some history. Despite its apparent liberalism after WW2, Finland was on the side of Germany and many Finns were happy with Nazi racial doctrines. It's Norway and Iceland that were the socially liberal states, Sweden more imperialistic and Finland most North Germanic. It hasn't "become a police state", it has always had strong authoritarian tendencies.

Think what the reputation of Scandinavia was in the Dark Ages and the Middle Ages, and you will get the point (note- before anybody accuses me of trolling, in real life I have a surname of Scandinavian origin. I just don't buy into the myth that Scandinavia is some pareadise of uncorrupt liberalism.)